Faith In God

'A man who slipped off the edge of a cliff and was desperately hanging onto a rope to keep from falling. He screamed at the top of his voice, "Is there anyone there who can help me?" A calm, reassuring voice answered back, "It is the Lord. Let go of the rope." The man thought about it for a moment, looked down to see how far he would fall. Then he yelled out again even louder, "Is there anyone else there who can help me?'

See here, we find it to be ridiculous that one should refuse the help from the Lord! But human nature is such one has to see first and would base on what one sees. He forgot he should trust God! It is the Faith that we very often lack. Many of us have read the Bible many times and know of the Word of God very well. Yet when it comes to a situation when one has to put Faith in front of things that one sees, one totally forgets about it. One forgets Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Moses and Lord Jesus! These were the people who walked by Faith! Lord Jesus told Thomas:"Thomas, you believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." Have you ever been at a place in your life where you felt the Lord was telling you to let go of the rope, but all you could see was how things looked from a logical, human perspective? It is very important for Christians, the followers of Christ to walk in Faith and not by sight!

Dear friends, what is God calling you to do that will require you to step into the darkness? Are you ready with the Faith in God?
--Extract from the Allworship Inspirational email by Rev. Alan Riley, Managing Editor of StreamingFaith.com.

These two weeks I always saw a newly saved sister who always showed her smiling face. My wife said she had changed so much and she looked much younger and healthier and sweeter. She was saved in the hospital when she was going for a knee operation(Osteoarthritis). After the operation she can walk briskly and enjoying her new health. Before her operation, her leg was swollen and she rather pulled along her leg instead of walking as she was having the severe nerve pain then. She told us her sister and her sister's church pastor went to visit her in the hospital while she was there and they prayed for her and told her the Good News. She was then saved though her husband was still not aware of her change. She would laughingly told us she now worshipped the One True God while her husband was still praying to the idols. Wow, she was so strong in her Faith!

I always saw a sister in my church who was always giving me the impression she was hurrying here and there and seemed to have a lot of questions in her head. I sympathized with her as she is a Chrisitian for more than 25years! Why is that she is not like the newly saved sister who is always smilng and happy!

Here is the problem. The other night when Rev John Ng was preaching in the Healing Rally he commented we Christians had to love our Lord fervently . We should not be cold and without fire. Oh, there is the reason! Very often, we "longtime" Christians tend to become indifferent if we stayed in the church for too long without going out to reach those unsaved souls outside, like joining the mission trips.

Care for the flock of God entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your good example---1Peter5:2-3 ;


Who has bewitched [bedeviled] you---Galatians3:1



Some one requested Daily Encounter to do a lesson on spiritual abuse in the church where some pastors were found rather than shepherding their flock, rebuke people into submission.


"This type of people are very insecure and immature...is an emotional sickness....they are playing the role of God and God's Spirit in other peoples' lives. However, when we (as adults) allow ourselves to be controlled by others instead of yielding to the control or direction of God's Spirit, we become a part of the controlling person's sickness because of our own insecurity and immaturity"


May be this is an awakening call to those leaders in Church who have got into this unbecoming attitude and also those church members who were too submissive or having a couldn't careless attitude. Time to wake up and serve our Lord gloriously.

You may refer to Acts International at http://www.actsweb.org/devotionals.php

The Two Sides of One Faith
Our faith in God who sent his Son to become God-with-us and who, with his Son, sent his Spirit to become God-within-us cannot be real without our faith in the Church.

The Church is that unlikely body of people through whom God chooses to reveal God's love for us. Just as it seems unlikely to us that God chose to become human in a young girl living in a small, not very respected town in the Middle East nearly two thousand years ago, it seems unlikely that God chose to continue his work of salvation in a community of people constantly torn apart by arguments, prejudices, authority conflicts, and power games.

Still, believing in Jesus and believing in the Church are two sides of one faith. It is unlikely but divine!

(Extract from The Henri Nouwen Society's daily meditation.)

This is so true. The present church should review their faith in God. The body of Christ should be introspective now of their role in the church. Are we following....?

"The Church is holy and sinful, spotless and tainted. The Church is the bride of Christ, who washed her in cleansing water and took her to himself "with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless" (Ephesians 5:26-27). The Church too is a group of sinful, confused, anguished people constantly tempted by the powers of lust and greed and always entangled in rivalry and competition."
The above is the extract from the Henri Nouwen Society's daily meditation. This reminds us of our Lord Jesus's purpose of coming to this earth. Are we to be without speck or wrinkle but holy and faultless after being baptized with water and the Holy Spirit, so that one day we could come face to face with our Almighty One?

生病的罪根没有全然拆毁净尽

雅各书五章13-16节


你们中间有受苦的呢, 他就该祷告。有喜乐的呢，他就该歌颂。你们中间有病了的呢，他就该请教会的长老来，他们可以奉主的名用油抹他，为他祷告。出于信心的祈祷，要救那病人，主必叫他起来。他若犯了罪，也必蒙赦免。所以你们要彼此认罪互相代求，使你们可以得医治。






哈利路亚！雅各书这几节给了我们盼望。告诉我们，我们的神是充满爱心的神，是充满怜悯的神。看哪！主说， 主必叫他起来；也必蒙赦免；使你们可以得医治。 哦。谢谢耶稣！

可是，为什么我们又看到有弟兄姐妹病倒了呢？为什么又有弟兄姐妹病得医治了切又再复发了呢？

Forgiveness vs Reconciliation

Like to share this from the Acts International Daily Encounter with you.
This is interesting and will solve what has been hoovering over the head of some of us for the past: forgiveness vs reconciliation.
God bless.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
NOTE: Daily Encounter still has more work to be done following the "hacker-attacks." Some links and pages are still under repair.

Forgiveness Vs. Reconciliation

"Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men."1
Following a series of Daily Encounters on "Forgiveness," a number of readers wanted to know if forgiving another person meant that we have to forget what has happened; or to love and stay with them if they are abusive; or to trust them?
The answer is no, no, no! Let me explain further.
When we have sinned, we need to be reconciled to God,2 but while reconciliation with others is the ideal, it isn't always possible—and sometimes not to be desired. Some teachers argue that forgiveness isn't possible unless the offending person admits what she/he has done and asks for forgiveness of the one they have hurt. If this were true, many of us would be stuck for life for the fact that many people do not, or will not, admit that they have done anything wrong, let alone apologize for it.
Forgiveness is dependent only on the person who has been hurt. Reconciliation is dependent on both the offended and the one who has offended.
One reader, whose husband was an alcoholic and physically abusive and dangerous when drunk, wanted to know if forgiving him meant loving and trusting him. Whew ... she was in quite a predicament. However, the most loving thing she could do, was to confront him and let him know that she was not going to tolerate his behavior any longer.
Furthermore, unless he got into recovery, and overcame his alcoholism and abusive behavior, she needs to separate herself and the children from him, and not return until his counselor could assure her that she and the children would be safe to live with him again. If she keeps tolerating his abusive and destructive behavior, she becomes part of his sickness.
In cases like this, the first thing victims need to do is to get professional counsel and help because some of these abusive husbands can become very dangerous.
And unless destructive and/or toxic, abusive people repent and change their ways, it is wise to avoid associating with them wherever possible. As the Bible indicates, it just isn't possible to live peaceably with all people.
Suggested prayer, "Dear God, in all my relationships, please help me to forgive all who have hurt me, to seek forgiveness where I have hurt others, and give me the wisdom to know when reconciliation is or isn't advisable or possible, and give me the courage to do what I need to do no matter how painful or frightening it may be. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Romans 12:17-18 (NASB).
2. 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV).

<:))))><

Below is an article I just received today from my mailbox and reading it, my heart goes to the Sabah Ranau district........ I am so sad. Yet, I dare not say anymore Wawasan 2020. We in the city enjoy all the most modern facilities. I believe even in the Peninsula Malaysia, there are places having the same conditions as Ranau Sabah, may be of a little bit better condition. We are yet to discover. Do we need our foreign friends to come to discover for us? Oh, no. Where are the State Assemblymen and where are the Members of Parliament of the respective districts. The politicians, they do not know of this state of life in Sabah?
Please read. May be those of us who can afford, who are wealthy enough-the philanthropists, can go and help out the poor people there in Ranau Sabah; so that the parents need not have to feed their children with toad eggs!


A touching account from a West Malaysian doctor - Don't neglect Sabah, please

Don't neglect Sabah, please
Another Doctor Sep 8, 08 5:11pm
I refer to the Malaysiakini article Kota Marudu needs more than wireless InternetI read Dr Hams letter and cannot help but agree with many of his observations.
I worked in Sabah for over seven years as a house officer and medical officer. After my housemanship, I was sent to Ranau to serve in the district hospital. What Dr Hams described in Kota Marudu is not something isolated to that district alone in Sabah. It is an often repeated story in the whole of Sabah.
My first introduction to the poverty in Sabah came during my first months there, when a sweet 70- year-old lady from Kota Marudu was sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with deep jaundice. She lived alone in a small village off Kota Marudu and noticed the jaundice about a month before. She had no money for the taxi fare and so waited a month to sell off her chickens to have enough money to pay RM50 for the transport to Kota Marudu Hospital. She had to walk two miles to get to the road to get to the taxi. Having been born, bred and educated in Peninsular Malaysia, I was shocked. When she arrived, she was septic and had a gallstone lodged in her common bile duct. The stone was duly removed but she was found to have a heart problem that required a pacemaker. We arranged for her to get a permanent pacemaker but she refused.When I pressed her for her reason, she told me that she couldn't afford to buy batteries for the pacemaker, having sold off her chickens. Once I explained to her that the batteries would last for years and we would provide them, she agreed to the pacemaker.
Ranau town itself has roads and is on the main highway between Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu. It developed primarily as a result of the Mamut Copper Mines in the district. However, highway in this context means a two lane road with frequent landslides and potholes, with a two-hour drive to Kota Kinabalu. Outside Ranau, transportation becomes a problem as tarred roads disappear to become gravel or crudely marked logging trails. Anyone who has worked in Sabah would have the same stories to tell, of extreme poverty and poor transportation. During my 2 years in Ranau, I've heard and seen it all, patients with cerebral malaria, a condition unheard of in Peninsular Malaysia, coming in after 48 hours to the hospital from places like Kaingaran and Karagasan, with relatives having to push the 'pirate taxi' through the mud, spending RM50 on fare during the monsoon season, the equivalent of 2 months income, this too when petrol was only around RM1.20 a litre in Ranau. Patients having to delay treatment for life threatening conditions because a bridge washed away along the trail (I won't even call it a road) to Tambunan. Emergency surgery such as cesarean sections, appendectomies and even ectopic pregnancies had to be performed in our little district hospitals by Medical Officers with little more than 4 months housemanship experience.Medical emergencies such as myocardial infarctions, which in Peninsular Malaysia would be managed in a Coronary Care Unit setting, had to be managed in the district hospital level. I'm grateful however, that my staff in that hospital were the best I've ever had the pleasure of working with and were dedicated enough to want to make a difference in their patients' lives.
But poor transportation does not only affect the access to health care. Having no roads to be able to transport their agricultural produce for sale means that these people are stuck in a never ending cycle of poverty. At most, some of them get RM20 to RM50 by selling their produce to middlemen to be sold at the monthly tamu or market at prices that are perhaps only 10 percent of the value of the goods. These innocent people are also preyed upon by traveling cloth merchants, mostly foreigners, who offer them 'easy payment schemes' to buy cloth for clothes, and when they cannot pay for the cloth and the interest accumulates, they end up having to marry their daughters to these men, who often have wives back home in Pakistan.
One of the cases I could never forget was of the family who came to Ranau Hospital just as I was leaving, a family who had failed crops, were hungry and unable to get food. The father collected some toad eggs and fed them to the whole family in a desperate attempt to stave off hunger. When they arrived at our little emergency room, one of the children were dead and two passed away within 10 minutes of arrival in our casualty unit due to poisoning.
Education is a problem in parts of Sabah outside major towns like Kota Kinabalu at the moment. Many children would be lucky to be able to get to a school or even afford to get to one. Most of my patients outside Ranau were lucky to even have a primary school education and a vast number of women marry in their teens. I've had 14 year olds delivering babies in Ranau, most of them have never ever stepped foot in a school. The education level is so poor that many women feed their children condensed milk thinking that it's better than breast milk.But at the heart of it all, these mothers want the best for their children but are not empowered with the knowledge to help them.
Major towns in Sabah have electricity courtesy of the Sabah Electricity Board, but smaller villages have either diesel generators or rely on candles or lamps when night falls. How can children study in these conditions? Like many doctors in the districts, I had to learn Dusun to communicate better with these patients who could speak little else.
Forty five years after the formation of Malaysia, the promise of a better life for these poor Dusun, Murut and Rungus patients in the districts of Sabah is a pipe dream at best.
How can our politicians claim to have brought development to the state and have neglected these poor people, many of whom still wear the cheap t-shirts and caps given free by political parties from many elections ago.
How can I claim to be proud of Putrajaya with it's beautiful bridges and lamp posts and the Petronas twin Towers when our fellow Malaysians in Sabah are so neglected?
The cycle of poverty and illiteracy one sees in the districts in Sabah brings despair to the heart. Eradication of poverty must tackle the real issues of education and transport and not just handouts to poor people.
By all means, declare Sept 16th a public holiday, but remember it in it's real context, where we made a promise to our brethren in Sabah and Sarawak to treat them as equals in Malaysia, and give them the development they've been long denied.